How could you not make a day trip to a place named Yahk? All the tourist guides in Creston spoke glowingly of the small community a few kilometres down the road, extolling virtues that included ice cream, soap and…goats? So yeah, we had to check it out.
As advertised, it didn’t take long to drive from Creston to Yahk. We were only slowed slightly by a stop to show off our canoe at a mandatory watercraft inspection station (one of a dozen such stops on this trip).
Upon arriving in Yahk, however, I was dismayed to discover that Two Scoop Steve, the local ice cream shop the guides spoke of in such glowing terms, was closed for the season. Why, @twoscoopsteveinyahk? Why did you have to close just 11 days before we visited? (OK, you talked me into it…we’ll come back when you’re open!)
Thankfully the Yahk Soap and Candle Co (@yahksoap) was open next door and filled with lovely smelling soaps, lotions, candles and other goodies. We poked around the store following the usual COVID-19 precautions and concluded it was a delightful place. I’d like to say we left empty handed…but that wouldn’t be true. Our hands were full and, as a bonus, very clean.
Outside the soap store we found the goats advertised in the tourist materials. We could see three of them and while they weren’t lounging on the shop roof as they apparently sometimes do, they did trot to the fence hoping for tasty treats. Sadly, we didn’t have any to share. But I did take some photos, including the one at the top of this post (that’s Toot the goat, if you’re curious).
Our lust for commerce exhausted we checked out the rest of Yahk, including the compact but very nice Yahk Provincial Park and the Horny Owl Saloon in the old hotel (which was closed and appears to be undergoing renovations).
A neat little side trip. Check out Yahk and buy some soap and ice cream…if your timing is better than ours!
